China prepares to send its first woman astronaut into space

China will send its first woman into space on Saturday along with two other
astronauts to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key
step toward becoming the only third nation to set up a permanent base in
orbit. Liu Yang, a 34-year-old air force pilot, and two male colleagues will
be launched aboard the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, which will dock with the
bus-sized Tiangong 1 space module now orbiting at 343 kilometres (213 miles)
above the Earth.